


You were where?

by randomcheeses



Series: Family [3]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Drama, F/M, Family, Gen, Humour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-10
Updated: 2010-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-11 01:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/106568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomcheeses/pseuds/randomcheeses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When his best friend had requested a few days leave and then disappeared without telling anyone where he was going, Maes Hughes hadn't been too worried</p>
            </blockquote>





	You were where?

When his best friend had requested a few days leave and then disappeared without telling anyone where he was going, Maes Hughes hadn't been too worried. After all, Roy did have business with things that he wouldn't want even friends to know about for their own safety. Besides, the man was the Flame Alchemist. It went without saying that he could look after himself, and even the weather had been particularly fine lately. Not a drop of rain in ages.

Three weeks later however, when there was still no word from Roy, Maes had started to get a little worried. In fact, he'd normally be a lot more worried by now, except. . . Hawkeye wasn't. Roy's dedicated First Lieutenant wasn't showing even the tiniest smidgen of worry over the whereabouts of her errant superior. Maes knew that Hawkeye would rather cook her own gun and serve it to the Fuhrer with parsley sauce than let any harm come to her Colonel. So if she didn't think he was in danger, then he probably wasn't.

Still, it _had_ been three weeks. So he decided to swing by Roy's office and see if he could get Hawkeye to at least give him a clue to Roy's location.

Hughes found her at her desk, busily sorting through paperwork and keeping a sharp eye on the rest of Roy's subordinates, lest they use the Colonel's absence as a golden opportunity to slack off. So he coughed to attract her attention, nodded towards the door to Roy's office and said, "First Lieutenant Hawkeye? Could I have a word in private please?"

"Of course, Lt. Col." Hawkeye rose and led Hughes into the Colonel's office. Then she closed the door firmly and turned to look at him. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Hawkeye," Hughes began awkwardly, "it's not that I want to tell you how to do your job or anything, but don't you think you should start looking for Roy? He's been missing for three weeks."

"Colonel Mustang is visiting his sister," the ever-efficient lieutenant replied calmly. "They haven't seen each other in quite some time. No doubt they have a lot to talk about."

Hughes' eyes widened in surprise for a second and then he nodded. "Oh," he conceded. "Well, that explains everything." He paused, as a stray thought struck him. "Er, you don't think Izumi's killed him, do you?"

"I doubt it Lt. Colonel. He's due back, right about . . . now," Hawkeye replied, and right on cue, Roy Mustang staggered through the doorway of his office, looking much thinner than he'd been when he left and much, much more miserable.

"Sir," Hawkeye saluted him, as he wobbled over to his chair and sat down, before she left, presumably in search of more paperwork.

"Hughes," Roy said raspily, once Hawkeye was gone, "what are you doing here?"

"Oh you know," Hughes said innocently, "just checking up on my best friend who's been missing for, oh, three weeks, and neglected to inform me that he was just _visiting his sister._"

"Ah," Roy muttered. "You're mad at me."

"Oh not at all. I'm quite used to my closest friends vanishing without a trace to god-knows-where. So how is your sister these days? Still violently opposed to all state alchemists?"

Roy grimaced. "Even more violently than before. Turns out Izumi took on a pair of apprentices since the last time I saw her."

"So?"

"So would you care to guess as to the names of those apprentices?"

Hughes' mouth dropped open. "You're kidding," he breathed, an appropriately horrified look crossing his face.

Roy narrowed his eyes at his best friend. "I just spent three weeks marooned on an island with no alchemy. Does it _look_ like I'm kidding?"

Hughes blinked. "You what?"

Roy's tough expression crumbled abruptly. "She marooned me on Yock Island," he whined. "_Without_ my gloves. I haven't eaten any proper food in a week. I'm hungry, Hughes! Take pity and feed me!"

"Aw c'mon Roy," Hughes said with a grin, "it can't have been that bad."

He then found himself the recipient of one the most vicious looks ever to cross the face of Roy Mustang and admitted to himself that, okay, yes it could've been that bad. Probably worse.

"I'd like to see how _you'd_ do stranded on an island for three weeks!" Roy growled at him. However, unfortunately for Roy, the snarl in his voice was rather undermined by the fact that his stomach had started rumbling.

"Ahh, I know you don't mean that."

"Oh yes, I do." Roy snapped. "Food. I need it. You can get it. Or you can have a wonderful island holiday."

Hughes backed away slightly, making sure that Roy's desk was between the two of them. His friend's mental state appeared to be a little fragile and 'better safe than sorry' seemed to be the way to go. "But how would you explain to my adorable Elysia that her daddy can't come home and kiss her goodnight for three whole weeks?" he said quickly. "You're her favourite Uncle Roy. You wouldn't want to make her cry, now would you?"

Roy scowled. "Dammit. That's low, Hughes."

_Hah! Saved by the power of adorableness, _Hughes thought, resisting the urge to grin triumphantly.

"Although," Roy mused thoughtfully, "I could tell her that her father was away on vacation and having a wonderful time and would be home soon with souvenirs."

"And, have my Elysia thinking Daddy left her and Mommy to go on vacation alone?" Hughes cried in a scandalized tone. "That's terrible!"

"Okay, on a fun, but slightly dangerous vacation, on an island filled with wild animals."

"Oh right, that's _so _much better." Hughes straightened up and pitched his voice lower, in an impression of Roy. "Don't worry, it's okay, Elysia. Daddy's having fun almost being eaten by wild beasts."

Roy groaned. "Oh just get me some food!"

Hughes ignored him. "Besides," he said, apparently addressing empty air, "there's nothing remotely dangerous on that island unless your sister comes to visit."

"Oh really?" Roy asked sweetly. "I should tell her you said that. And invite her to visit Central. You two haven't seen each other in ages after all."

Hughes almost swallowed his tongue. "You wouldn't!"

"You haven't fed me yet," Roy snapped. "So yes, I would. And there were so wild animals on Yock Island. Izumi dropped Fullmetal there with me."

"Y'know Roy, in the time it's taken for us to have this argument, you could have easily got yourself a sandwich," Hughes pointed out. "Why are you obsessed with having me feed you? And for the last time, Ed does not count as a wild animal." He paused. "Hang on, if Ed was there, why didn't you two just transmute a boat and row home?"

Roy raised an eyebrow. "And why are you assuming that Izumi left him his arm?"

"You're kidding. . ."

"I never kid when Izumi is involved. It tends to get back to her."

"True," Hughes agreed with a shudder. "Still, even without his arm, I'm sure Ed remembers how to actually draw-"

"He refused," Roy interrupted, a supremely irritated look on his face. "Izumi told him not to. And, he _listened_," Roy added, starting to look a tad sulky, though Hughes supposed it _might_ just be fatigue. "It's not right, you know. I'm his commanding officer, and he responds to _my_ orders by screaming profanity at me and then following the orders in the loosest, most destructive manner he can think of. She just _looks_ at him, and he does whatever she says to the letter."

"Well, you also don't greet people by flinging them into walls," Hughes pointed out practically.

Roy sniffed. "Some of us believe respect can be gained - from anyone rational, at any rate - without beating it out of people. Also, the military frowns on that sort of behaviour. It's disruptive."

"Well, yes it would be, I suppose. Still, you and Ed suffered together, right? Surely that means you two bonded and gained some mutual respect?"

"Ha. You jest," Roy said flatly. "This is Fullmetal we're talking about. The only reason he shared the food he caught with me was because he wanted to wait for the optimum time to tell me that I was eating rat."

"Rat?"

"Rat," Roy confirmed. "I should have known when the little brat offered it already cut into unrecognizable pieces." He paused, twitching slightly. "And, that honestly sounds almost appetizing right now. What does a man have to do to get some food from his best friend?"

Hughes smiled and moved around the desk to throw an arm over Roy's shoulder. "Just ask," he said cheerfully.

"I already did. Repeatedly. You snarked at me."

"Well, ask and," he took out a stack of photographs, "look at my complete collection of Elysia on her tricycle!"

Roy sighed in resignation. "Oh all right. But I better get a three course meal out of this."

"Gracia's best lasagne," Hughes promised. "By the way," he asked, "where are Ed and Al now anyway?"

"Izumi let them go two days early," Roy answered distractedly, now daydreaming of the world's best lasagne. "They should have arrived back here yesterday. You haven't seen them yet?"

"Huh. Nope, haven't seen them," Hughes replied, scratching at his beard as he sorted through the photographs. "Oh look at this one! Isn't she gorgeous?"

Roy nodded dutifully. "Adorable. Think I'll get Havoc to drive over to the dorms and check on them," he decided. "I've got another mission for Ed anyway."

###

Twenty minutes later, Roy found himself standing in the Elric brother's dorm room along with a panicking Lt. Havoc.

Roy stared at the hugely complex array on the floor, at the empty suit of armour, and at the odd, glittering white gravel littering the room. But most of all he stared at the two blond, golden eyed boys who couldn't have been any more than ten or eleven years old, huddled together in the middle of the array, stark naked but for the nearly-hyperventilating lieutenant's jacket.

"Edward? Alphonse?" he asked, trying to his best to keep his voice steady. "Are you, well, _you_?"

The slightly younger, less familiar looking boy nodded hesitantly. "Um. Yes?" he said, sounding as if he wasn't entirely sure.

Their identities tentatively confirmed, Roy focused on the boy who was almost certainly Edward. "Fullmetal, what have you done?" he demanded. "Are you both alright? What _happened?_"

Edward stared back at him silently.

"Well?" Roy asked again, horrible suspicions beginning to fill his mind as the blank, empty look stayed on the boy's face. "Edward? Answer me!"

Being addressed by name seemed to flick a switch in the boy. His eyes cleared and he shook his head. Then, finally, Ed spoke.

"Who _are_ you? And what's Fullmetal?"

_Oh, _Roy thought blankly, _well that settles it. Izumi's going to kill me._


End file.
